Sketches

Saturday 2 May 2015

New York,Times square: Police arrests

We just returned from a few nice days in New York.
Before I show the usual drawings I made: here is a newsflash. A few drawings I made last wednesday on Time Square related to the protests in support of the demonstrations on the death of Freddy Gray in Baltimore.
That wednesday night we were returning from dinner on 49th street when we heard helicopters overhead. A few minutes later some 20 police vans appeared, spilling out policemen and blocking 9th ave. The protesters came from Times square, maybe 200 persons, marching on the sidewalks and crossing the avenue. They did not seem to know where to go, because they walked into the direction of Hells kitchen, but suddenly returned and came back to 9th ave, only to take the turn downtown towards PABS.
It was a bit awkward to see that the sidewalk terraces of the restaurants had business as usual, people were just eating dinner. But we also noted that the liquor and electrical stores were closed and had police protection in front of the doors.
We saw 2 arrests just before our nose, quite an uneasy experience.


We walked to Times square (our hotel was on 8th ave and 42nd, just a block away). On Times square a large group of protesters stood shouting and showing signs. A large group of police officers stood near by to try and redirect the traffic and keep tourists out of the way. At some point some protesters blocked the road (I could not see if that was on purpose), and some 10 officers jumped on a protester and carried him away. It was over so quick I could only draw with the tools I had at hand.
The atmosphere was changing quickly, and an angry young black man started to talk to us to try to explain. We decided to return to our hotel. We heard the sirens and helicopters until late that night.

No comments: